Since then, I have heard from a surprising number of people via email and social media who want to know, after reading those entries, if I remain happy with the two decisions. For the most part, the answer is yes – with a couple of caveats.

Most of the folks asking about this are people who face the same dilemma – they’re interested in switching hardware platforms and/or carriers. Usually it’s Apple –> Android and AT&T –> Verizon, but I’m also hearing from people who are moving in the opposite direction. To paraphrase Jerry Lee Lewis, there’s a whole lotta switchin’ goin’ on.

With that in mind, here are some notes about my experiences with the iPhone 5 and AT&T’s LTE data network, almost two months after I started using them.

The hardware

As a veteran iPhone user, I’m comfortably happy with Apple’s latest iteration of the device, for the most part. Each time I pick it up – even in the minimalist Rocketfish clear case that swaddles it – I’m amazed at how light and thin it is. I still like the elegant look of the white model, though after my wife bought a black one, I almost wish I’d gone with that one. It has an almost sinister look to it . . .

Apple elongated the screen without increasing the width, and this was one of the big reasons why I wanted to stick with the iPhone. While my eyes loved the screen real estate of the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III, my hands did not. I tend to work a smartphone with one hand with my thumb, but I can’t reach the far corners of the S III’s screen one-handed.

That said, the size of the iPhone 5’s screen remains a disappointment when it comes to watching video, or any other task that would benefit from a bigger display. I know the laws of physics and biology are at work here, but I really want a bigger iPhone screen that a solo thumb can navigate. Sigh.

One of the other aspects that called to me about Android was the ability to drop widgets onto the home screen that let you control features of the phone that are hidden behind menus in iOS. While Apple has not yet allowed this, I found that another feature of the iPhone 5 helps mitigate this issue: Its speed.

The iPhone 5 is very, very fast, and so diving into its Settings to turn things on and off is not as much of an irritant as on previous phones. While I still wish I could have widgets out front to control WiFi, Bluetooth and other power-sucking features, I’m not as annoyed about this as I used to be.

The battery life on the iPhone continues to be very, very impressive. I often end my day with well over 50 percent of battery life remaining. Its stamina is as good or better than most other phones I’ve tried so far.

Finally, there’s Apple’s decision to switch to a new type of connect, dropping the 30-pin connection that’s been around for years for a smarter, smaller, 8-pin plug it calls Lightning. This has resulted in some extra expense, but not much. I’ve purchased a total of four USB-to-Lightning cables for $19 each, which are usable with any USB-based charger. I have a bunch of those already around, including one for my car, so it’s been relatively painless. And I love the fact that the Lightning connector doesn’t have to be inserted just one way – you just grab it and plug it in. This is much better than the mini-USB connection, which only fits one way.

So far, my regrets are minor and few. Yes, I’m happy with the decision to stick with the iPhone.

The carrier

I am surprised at how happy I have been with AT&T – at least in terms of data connections. While AT&T’s LTE network isn’t available in as many markets across the U.S. as Verizon’s, it’s got great coverage in Houston, andit remains remarkably fast.

I recently took a trip with my family to see my daughter, who’s attending the University of Missouri in Columbia. That 14-hour drive takes us through rural and urban areas in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. I was surprised at the places where I could find an LTE connection, and when wasn’t present, I had AT&T’s HSPA+ network. While I’ve derided the latter as “Faux G” because of poor performance I’d seen on early review phones, it does admirably on my iPhone 5.

LTE tests in Houston give me at least 10 megabits per second download speeds with very low latency – but typically it’s much faster. I’m no longer surprised to get speeds of 30 Mbps or better. When the phone drops back to HSPA+, speeds are typically around 5-7 Mbps, which is acceptable.

That said, I have occasionally had instances where AT&T’s LTE bogs down or becomes sluggish. This happens rarely and briefly, and far less than when I was stuck on AT&T 3G. There’s no way to tell just what causes this, but it’s not been bad enough to be classified as a reason for concern. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Finally, I also have not run into issues with chewing through huge amounts of data because I have LTE. I do watch a lot of video on the phone, usually through Netflix, and I’ve got that service set to deliver the lowest-quality video available, which is about 300 MB of data in an hour. This level looks fine on the iPhone 5, particularly as I’m bouncing up and down on the elliptical at the gym, where I usually watch video on the phone. AT&T throttles unlimited LTE users at 5 GB, and so far I’ve come nowhere close to that limit.

I’m very happy with AT&T as an LTE provider. No regrets.

Update: One aspect of using AT&T I neglected to mention: voice calls.

While I don’t make a lot of them, I’m finding that having a new phone doesn’t solve the problem of dropped calls. For me, calls typically drop in the same location. One bad area: just east of Waugh Drive on Memorial. Another is the area around (and inside) the Chronicle’s parking garage at Prairie and Milam. And drops are a frequent occurrence anywhere around downtown Houston during rush hours, when the streets fill with motorists talking on their cell phones.

In other words, there’s no change on that front . . . though I dearly wish there was.

Dwight Silverman | Techblogger, social media manager

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